Love, Lies and Kisses
by weatheredcreator
Summary: Who knew that a sleepover at Gabriella's house could end with such a tragedy? Gabriella's determined to discover who could have done such an unthinkable act...the act of murder. Troyella, minor Chadpay. R&R plz! Complete!
1. Sleepover

Love, Lies and Kisses

Chapter 1: Sleepover

Gabriella Montez took one final glance at herself in the mirror before going to answer the knock at her door. She had invited her five closest friends over to spend the night while her parents were away on vacation.

The first to arrive was Troy Bolton, her boyfriend of two years; sweet, tanned and absolutely gorgeous. His deep blue eyes could put a trance on any girl, and were deadly once combined with his perfect Hollywood smile. He shot Gabriella a quick smile before greeting her with a kiss. Before Gabriella could close the door, Troy's best friend Chad waltzed in hand in hand with girlfriend, and Gabriella's best friend, Taylor. They both had dark skin and hair, Chad's a big afro and Taylor's flowing casually below her shoulders.

"Hey Gabs!" Taylor greeted, momentarily releasing Chad from her grip to pull Gabriella into a friendly hug.

"What's up, guys?" But before anyone could respond, they were interrupted by the familiar squabbling of the glamorous twins they had all grown to love.

"But Shar-"

"Damn it, Ryan, just drop it already!"

"What's up guys" Troy asked, between chuckles.

Sharpay Evans flipped her highlighted blonde waves over her shoudler and flashed a winning smile. "Oh, nothing. Ryan wants to borrow my Mercedes for his trip to New York this weekend, but I need it."

"But Shar, you have, like, six cars!" Chad said.

"Yeah, but so does Ryan. Besides, my Mercedes is my baby!"

"All your cars are your babies…" Ryan grumbled, taking of his blue leather jacket and hat, revealing a blonde head of hair matching his sister's.

"Anyways," Gabriella said, changing the subject, "now that we're all here, let's get this party started!"

Everyone laughed and followed Gabriella into her basement, where Gabriella had five pizzas and countless bowls of chips and popcorn ready. Troy sat down in a chair, and placed Gabriella on his lap. Chad did the same with Taylor on the couch next to them, where Sharpay and Ryan also sat. Little did the group know, this was going to be the beginning of the last night of one of their lives.


	2. Goodnight, Troy

Chapter 2: Goodnight, Troy.

For the rest of the night, the six talked, laughed, ate, danced, played games like Truth or Dare and a couple of drinking games, watched TV and just fooled around. It was around 4am that they all finally started to nod of to sleep, all a little bit tipsy. Troy and Gabriella shared a sleeping bag, the two of them lying together, arms entwined. Chad and Taylor slept side by side, Taylor's head lying in the crook of his neck, with his toned armed embracing her. Sharpay lied next to Troy and Gabriella, while Ryan slept on the couch, above and behind everyone else, who slept on the floor.

Troy lied peacefully, him lying facing away from Gabriella, her chest pushing up against his back from behind. Just as he was falling asleep, he felt a pair of warm, glossy lips push up against his. He smiled lazily into the kiss, figuring Gabriella had contorted in just a way so she could give him a goodnight kiss, without having to make him move. But apparently, this was more than goodnight. He felt the tongue of his midnight kisser brush across his bottom lip and he groggily obliged, however not really in the mood. The kisser roughly entered Troy's mouth, but only brushed her tongue along his momentarily, long enough to leave something small and dry on his tongue. Troy was taken by surprise, and swallowed whatever it was that was left within his mouth. All Troy heard was a soft sigh, then a whisper "Goodnight, Troy."


	3. Love Lost

Chapter 3: Love Lost

The next morning, Gabriella was the first to wake. She snaked her arms from around Troy and wiggled skillfully out of the sleeping bag, and just laughed sliently as Troy didn't budge. She noticed Taylor and Ryan stirring as she made her way to her purse to grab her make-up. She blindly grabbed her purse and directed her feet to the bathroom. After glancing at her disheveled-looking self, she began digging through her purse. A tube of nude lip gloss, a bottle of stomach pills, tampons, a mirror with royal blue sequins, a glittery pink wallet - this wasn't her wallet! It was Sharpay's! They had both coincidentally bought the same purse and were mixing each other's things up.

She walked back to retrieve her purse, and she found that almost everyone was awake, except Troy and Chad, to no surprise.

"Morning, guys!" She said with a sweet smile.

"Hey, Gabs. How'd ya sleep?" Taylor asked.

"Perfectly. I totally passed out, I didn't even hear Chad's snoring!"

"Oh, believe me, I did!" Taylor grimaced, and everyone laughed.

Chad soon awoke, and everyone was starting to grow hungry.

"C'mon, let's go eat breakfast. When he wakes up, he'll join us." Chad said.

"No, I'll wake him." Gabriella said. She loved seeing Troy first thing in the morning. She walked over and hovered over his head. "Troy." Gabriella whispered, "Troy...Troy. Troy! Troy!" Gabriella laughed. "You're such a faker! Troy!" She shook him and turned him over. "Troy! TROY! Wake up, for Christ sakes. It's not funny anymore, Troy. Troy?" Gabriella's heart started racing. She laid her ear against his chest, as her friends stared at her, confused. "Oh my God. His heart isn't beating! CALL 911!" Gabriella started crying. "Troy!" She began performing CPR, but she wasn't sure if it would do any good. Her eyes fogged completely with tears as she yelled Troys name over and over, hoping that maybe he could hear her. "Troy!" She sobbed. Her pumps slowly became less and less powerful as complete devastation came over her body and her strength drained from her. She lay draped over Troy's limp body and she cried into his chest, a growing pool of tears forming against his shirt.

When the paramedics arrived, they had to force Gabriella off of him. They didn't bother taking him to the hospital as they confirmed that he had been dead for a couple of hours already. Gabriella's head was spinning. None of this made sense. How does an extremely healthy and perfectly in-shape 17 year old guy suddenly drop dead? He was perfectly fine when she had fallen asleep right next to him just over six hours ago.

"Hello. My name is Chief Connors. I am the officer in charge of this case."

"Case? What case?" Gabriella's mind was whirring. This was all happening way too fast.

"Well, it seems that Mr. Bolton died of a heart attack."

"A heart attack? He's only seventeen! How is that possible?"

"Well that's it. It's highly unlikely. We can tell that Mr. Bolton was in excellent physical condition, and it is therefore hard to believe that he would suffer a fatal heart attack at such a young age, under these circumstances. We have a right to believe that your friend here was murdered."

"Murdered?!" Gabriella's knees buckled. She sat down on whatever it was behind her. Who would possibly wish death upon Troy Bolton?! Everyone in school liked him, she didn't know of anyone that loathed him so much that they would kill him. "That doesn't make sense, everyone likes Troy, that's impossible, who would do such a thing." Gabriella's speech was going a mile a minute now, she was panicking.

"Hold on, young lady, don't get all worked up just yet. We know you weren't the murderer. You're all checked out. However, we need to get a statement from you, and from your friends - they, unlike you, are all still prime suspects in Mr. Bolton's murder."

Gabriella's eyes widened in shock. "WHAT?! No, no no no no no. They would never do this. None of them. No one. Ever."

"Even so, we can't cross anyone out until we further investigate. Which brings me to my next point - your house is officially a crime scene and you and your friends, as witnesses and suspects, are forbidden to enter this household until further notice."

"Until further notice?! How long is that going to be?! What am I going to tell my parents!?" Gabriella fought back tears as the memories of her and Troy of the past two years rushed into her brain.

"Um...well...Ms. Montez, actually, there's been a lot of crime going on lately. You'd be surprised. The station is all backed up and we won't be able to investigate Mr. Bolton's murder for at least another week."

"ANOTHER WEEK?! Are you fucking kidding me?! My boyfriend is dead, and you and your pathetic police squad are probably out trying to find petty thieves or some shit like that! This is fucking ridiculous." With that, Gabriella stormed out of her house, finally letting the tears she was holding back fall. She wasn't allowed in her own house, her boyfriend is dead and no one was going to do anything about it for another week, at the most. By that time, the killer would definitly have gone by then. Gabriella couldnt believe she was saying this- but the killer had to have been one her friends: Chad, Taylor, Sharpay or Ryan. Gabriella decided right then that since the police weren't going to be doing anything, she would take matters into her own hands; she was going to find out who killed Troy Bolton.


	4. This is Personal

Chapter 4: This is Personal

"_Gaby! Gabyyy! C'mere!" Troy ran across the grass of the soccer field, chasing Gabriella in a fit of laughter. He was much faster than her, she didn't stand a chance. But she kept running. They were both giggling, giddy from spending hours together. Gabriella looked back to see the familiar built figure speed up and come up right behind her._

"_Aaaah!" Gabriella squealed and giggled. Troy grabbed her waist, but she tripped, pulling the both of them down together, sending them rolling across the lawn in hysterical laughter. Once they finally stopped rolling, they were side by side, staring up at the sky, regaining their breath. Once they were fully capable of breathing, Troy climbed on top of Gabriella, one hand on either side of her head, supporting him. He leaned his head in towards her and they shared their first kiss._

Gabriella was snapped out of her flashback by the sound of a knock at her door. She had spent all afternoon just staring at her ceiling, trying to grasp anything and everything she remembered about Troy. She never wanted to forget him.

"Come in." she yelled at her bedroom door. It was Taylor, her best friend.

"Hey, Gabby. How are you doing? Are you okay?" Taylor sat down next to her on the edge of her bed.

"I'm alright. Taylor, did the Police Chief guy talk to you?"

"Yeah and I can't believe I'm a suspect! This is ridiculous! You know I would never do anything like kill someone…especially Troy. I would never do that to him. To you."

"I know, Tay." They both went silent for a couple of seconds until Gabriella broke the silence. "Tay, you're my best friend. I can tell you anything, right?"

"Of course, Brie. What's wrong?"

"Well everything's wrong, but you knew that." She sighed, and sat up to face to face with her best friend. "I'm going to try and find out who killed Troy."

"WHAT? Gabriella, no. No, you can't." Taylor knew she was being harsh just by the shocked expression on Gabriella's face. The expression soon turned from shock to hurt.

"Well, why not? The police won't do it! I'm not just going to let whoever this is get away with it! Besides, I hate saying this but it _has _to be one of us. I mean, killers don't just come into someone's house and kill one kid! It doesn't make sense and –"

"Gabby!" Taylor interrupted, "do you hear yourself?! First of all, it's not like whoever this was came in and stabbed Troy, he died from a heart attack! Maybe he was helped somehow but this is way too complicated for you to get into. And obviously whoever you're dealing with is smart, and I can't believe you would think it's one of us! You're dealing with a _murderer._ I just…I… I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't want you to be next. I've already lost someone I love, and don't want to lose another." Gabriella searched Taylor's eyes for any hope of support. She knew that all Taylor was doing was protecting her, but that wasn't going to stop Gabriella from pursuing her detective work. "Yeah. OK, Tay." She hated lying to Taylor, but she felt she had to.There was something weird about the way Troy died. She wasn't going to let something like this go. This was personal.


	5. Phone Message

Chapter 5: Phone Message

Normally, Gabriella would have been sulking. She would have spent the rest of her life in bed, sleeping, dreaming, crying, and sleeping. But for some reason, she was full of adrenaline. She decided it was time to officially start her detecting. She called Sharpay. "Hey Shar, can I come over?"

"Ya, of course hun, come right over. How're you holding up?" Gabriella could here the sincerity in her Sharpay's voice.

"Yeah, I'm doing OK. I just want to talk."

"OK, love. I'll see you in a minute."

"Bye Shar." Gabriella hung up, grabbed her purse (the one identical to Sharpay's) and left.

She arrived at Sharpay's house soon after their phone call. She greeted Sharpay, and Ryan, who was watching TV by himself. The two girls made their way to Sharpay's room.

Gabriella sighed. "Oh, Shar." She sobbed, "I'm so upset. I mean, what if it was one of us? Like, one of our friends who did this? I just…It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Gabs." She took Gabriella's hand into her own, "Don't worry. Whoever did this will get caught. Even if it takes a week or so for the cops to catch him. Or her. Just be patient OK? Everything's gonna be OK." She gave Gabriella a reassuring smile.

Gabriella thought for a split second that she should tell Sharpay she was 'on the case'. But she stopped herself. After all, where would Nancy Drew or Sherlock Holmes be if they went around telling all their suspects that they were under investigation? She only told Taylor because she was her best friend. And even then, Gabriella was beginning to regret telling Taylor. As unfortunate as it was, everyone was a suspect. Including Taylor, for now.

Just as Gabriella was going to continue, a knock came at the door. "It's me." Ryan's sing-song voice called through Sharpay's pink door. Sharpay turned towards Gabriella with a questioning look in her eyes. Gabriella nodded, telling her it was OK for him to join them.

"Come in." Ryan slowly opened the door and gave a small smile.

"Hey guys. Sorry if I'm interrupting anything."

"Naw. We were just talking about Troy." Gabriella looked down, biting her bottom lip to hold back the tears that now almost automatically followed the mention of that name.

"Do you mind if I stay and talk too? I miss him just as much. I can't believe anyone would do such a thing."

"I know. We all feel the same way."

"Do you think it could have been…one of us?" Ryan asked, with obvious hesitation in his voice.

"I don't know." Gabriella wished the exact opposite, but there was no way around that one particular fact, as far as she was concerned. "I mean, you don't think Taylor or Chad could have done this, could you?" Gabriella made sure to watch Sharpay's eyes closely; she always seemed to know what was going on and she was determined to get anything useful out of her. Sharpay glanced up quickly, almost as if in panic, and when she saw Gabriella's eyes on hers, she looked away just as fast.

"Shar…?" Gabriella knew she had hit something. Sharpay looked at Gabriella, pleading with her eyes that she doesn't have to tell her anything. But Gabriella was investigating – whether Sharpay knew it or not – and was going to hear everything. She kept her face firm and blank. Sharpay sighed in defeat. "It's just that…I mean it probably doesn't mean anything. But I know that Chad and Troy were up against each other for a basketball scholarship at UofA. Troy got it, but Chad didn't. I heard through Zeke. Chad was pretty pissed, but I don't think he would have killed Troy. They're best friends."

Gabriella's eyes went wide. How come Troy hadn't told her he had gotten the scholarship?! It's not like this was devastating news, it was great! She started to cry, and buried her nose and eyes into Sharpay's pink top.

"Gaby, this is my new Juic –" Ryan shot her an evil glare. Now was _not_ the time to be worrying about mascara stains. "…juicy gossip. I just heard it. I would have told you sooner but the time didn't seem right. Besides, I thought for sure Troy would have told you by now." This made Gabriella sob harder into Sharpay's shoulder.

"No, he didn't tell me, but that's OK. I forgive him. Um…I should go. Bye guys." Gabriella left before the Evans' could see her off.

When Gabriella got home, she saw that there was a message on her phone. She dialed into her voice mail and listened. "Hi Gabriella. It's Jack, Troy's dad. Um, we pushed hard that Troy get an autopsy, we refused to believe he died of a heart attack alone, especially in his condition. So they gave in, the results of the autopsy are in, but we want you to be there to hear them too, and the cops said this was OK since you've been ruled out as a suspect, so could you come down to the police station? It's just that…you're as much of a part of our lives as you were of Troy's. He loved you a lot Gabriella. Thanks."

Hey guys! Just a quick author's note to let you know that I really appreciate you reading this story! The next chapter (or maybe two!) should be up by tomorrow. And don't worry; there will be no graphic autopsy scenes, but lots of suspense! The ending is actually coming up quicker than I thought it would.

Thanks again! CATSMANEKloveshsm 3


	6. A Word from the Best Friend

**A/N:** Hello, dear readers! This will be the second to last episode, forgive the story, I'm not a mystery expert. I read them, not write them! The final chapter will be up tomorrow. I hope you all enjoyed my little fantasy, and please check out my other story "California Love" (it's much better, with much more fluff ; ).

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Chapter 6: A Word from the Best Friend

Gabriella walked into the police office. Troy's parents and the police chief stood as she entered.

"Gabriella. We're so glad you came. We were afraid you'd be too upset." Troy's father looked at Gabriella with relief in his eyes.

"Oh my gosh, no. I mean, I can only imagine what you're both going through. I'm so sorry about Troy. If there's anything I can do, let me know."

"Gabriella, you're sweet." Troy's mother looked as if she had been crying, and looked on the verge of tears as she spoke. "But, there isn't anything more you could possibly do. Thank you, though."

Gabriella doubted that she couldn't do anything, but she remained quiet. The police chief pulled some papers out of a folder and brought them to a small interrogation room in the back of the station. The four of them sat down and the police chief began reading the report. However, it was all in medical terms, so he stopped and gave a short summary of what had happened to Troy.

"Alright, let me see if I can say this a bit simpler. Troy's heart didn't stop of natural causes, but we had a hunch this was the case, considering Troy's youth and physical condition. The autopsy showed that Troy's heart stopped because of an illegal substance that entered his body, rushed through his blood system into his heart. It caused his heart rate to speed up extremely and it got too much, so his heart just….stopped."

"A substance? Like what?" Troy's father looked worried.

"Well, that's what we don't have time to investigate. It had to be a pill, maybe a powder. It was ingested orally. Was Troy on any medication?"

"No. None whatsoever." Both Troy's parents were becoming noticeably anxious.

"That's very strange. The only type of substance that could do such damage would be a prescription type pill. Whoever got Troy to take the pill either has or had heart problems, or got the stuff from the black market. I'm sorry, I have to be at another crime scene, so I should get going. If you have any information that can help us with the case, let us know. Sometimes a case can be bumped up the 'to do' list, if you will, if we have enough to work with. Once again, I'm sorry for your loss. Hang in there." The police chief left the room. Gabriella looked at Troy's parents, worried.

"So Troy was…murdered." Troy's mother wept. "Who would do this? Who would hurt my baby?" Gabriella swallowed back a lump that was forming in her own throat. She sighed, and looked up at the two grief-ridden parents.

"I'm so, so sorry. For everything. Um, I have to go. I'm sorry." Gabriella's words became more and more of a whisper as she spoke.

She had to go. She had a hunch of her own. She called Sharpay on her cell.

"Sharpay Evans, don't waste my time." Normally when Sharpay answered her phone, she sounded more charismatic, she had more attitude. Now she just sounded distracted, careless.

"Hey Shar. It's me, Gabriella."

"Gaby!" The tone of Sharpay's voice lifted a bit at the sound of her friend's voice. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Sharpay, um, are you any medication?"

"No…" She could hear the confusion in Sharpay's voice. "Why?"

"My mind's been wandering lately, that's all. Just curious I guess." Gabriella said, and then hung up. That was strange.

Gabriella decided to take another approach. She only had one person she hadn't spoken to since Troy's death: Chad. She drove to his house, and rang the doorbell. Chad's mom answered the door.

"Oh. Gabriella. Now's not a really good time. Chad's in a really bad state right now."

"I know, Ms. Danforth, I completely understand. I just…I wanted to talk to him. About Troy."

"It's OK, mom. I'm fine." Chad said from somewhere in the house. "I wanna talk to her." Chad's mom shrugged, and opened the door, signaling for Gabriella to come in. Gabriella smiled and walked into the Danforth residence. She saw Chad standing outside his room, and he waved her in.

"Hey Chad." Gabriella said, standing awkwardly in Chad's room.

"Hey. You can sit on the bed, if you want." Gabriella sat.

"How have you been holding up?" Gabriella asked, Chad just scoffed.

"I just…I can't even explain. You know. It's like a part of me left with Troy too. This is the first time ever in my teenage years that I've cried. I swear to God, whoever did this…"

"So you know it was a murder."

"Yeah, I figured. Have you spoken to Taylor? I was going to, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone. She doesn't take bad news well. When she was little, she used to get bad panic attacks, did you know that? It was really awful. Anyways, you should talk to her. She really liked Troy. Like _really_ liked her. She's had a crush on him for a long time." He chuckled. "It didn't really bother me though, whenever the topic was brought up, she just kissed me and said 'but you know that I love you, right?' You know what? I'll call her."

"OK well, I'll go. I'll give you some privacy." Gabriella smiled and left the Danforth house, saying goodbye to Chad's mom before she drove home to think about the information she had gathered so far.

When she got home, she lied on her bed and slept. She dreamed heavily, of her and Troy, of her friends. She awoke in a start. She called Taylor, then Chad, then Sharpay and Ryan. She told them all to meet her at her house as soon as possible. What she didn't tell them was that she knew who had killed Troy.


	7. The Murderer

Chapter 7: The Murderer.

Gabriella called everyone into her house. She had also called the police to stand by in case anything got out of hand. The police were against Gabriella's plan, but she insisted upon doing things her own way. Everyone sat around Gabriella's basement, no one having any idea why they were there.

"Everyone, what I have to tell you is really hard for me to say. So I'm going to tell you this slowly. Just, please, don't freak out when I tell you OK?" Everyone gave Gabriella a curious look, but remained in silence so she could continue.

"I know we've all been really concerned about what happened to Troy. When I found out that the police wouldn't be investigating I got really upset, you guys know that. So I kind of decided to investigate myself." Gabriella surveyed the different looks she was receiving from her friends. The first to respond was Taylor.

"Gabby! I thought I told you not to do this! You could've gotten really hurt." Gabriella looked at her best friend gave her a small sympathetic smile.

"I know Tay. And I'm sorry."

"Okay!" Sharpay said, anxious, "Don't just stand there! What's been going on?!"

"Well, I'll tell my thought process. At first I thought it was Ryan." She looked at Ryan, who looked astonished, and a little hurt. "Because I thought he had planned his trip so he could get out of town, and use Sharpay's car and like, frame her or something. But I crossed that out almost right away since there was no REAL proof against him. Then I thought it was Chad." She looked at Chad, who glared at Gabriella. Before Gabriella could continue, she was interrupted by Chad's angry voice.

"WHAT?! What the hell Gabriella?! How could you possibly think that I'd do that?! You saw me yesterday, my mom even told you, I haven't been out of my room – out of BED – since Troy died. You're so full of shit." Gabriella swallowed the lump that seemed to be fighting its way up her throat.

"Chad let me finish! I heard about the scholarship thing between you and Troy and I though maybe you were jealous of him and wanted to…I don't know, get revenge or something. But when I went to see you, it was clear that you hadn't. It didn't make sense. Also, I had nothing to back that theory up. So THEN, I thought it was Sharpay." Sharpay stared wide-eyed at Gabriella. Gabriella smiled reassuringly at her and continued. "Because the police chief found out through Troy's autopsy that his heart was stopped with the help of a strong heart medication, most likely a pill. The morning Troy died; I took your purse by accident, Sharpay. It had a bottle of pills in it. I thought for sure that you were the murderer, because why else would you have those pills? And I know that you like Troy, we all know that, we've always known that. It didn't make sense to me though, why you would kill him. Especially since I know how happy you are with Zeke. The last thing, and this confirmed that Sharpay didn't kill Troy, was that those pills are only given to people who have or who had a heart condition. And I happen to know that Sharpay does not have a heart condition." Gabriella closed her eyes. What she was about to say hurt her most. Almost as much as losing Troy. Tears were forming in her eyes as she spoke her next words. "However, it was that same information, about the pills being prescription only, that narrowed who _did_ kill Troy." She looked at the killer with tears in her eyes. "I know you killed Troy, Taylor." Gabriella burst out into tears. Taylor just sat there, shocked. "You used to have a heart condition. I know that. You suffered panic attacks, serious ones, and had medication for it. You put the medication in Sharpay's bag to divert the attention away from you. When you told me not to investigate, you weren't protecting me. You were protecting yourself." You could only barely understand what Gabriella was saying through her blubbering. Taylor closed her eyes and you could see the gears churning in her mind. Gabriella spoke up once more, seeming to have calmed down a bit more. "I just don't understand _why_. I know you liked Troy. But why did you kill him?! And why at my sleepover? I just don't understand. I know it's you. But…" She was interrupted by a heavy sigh from Taylor. "You guys are all so blind. Except Chad, but even he was too in love with me to notice. I don't just like Troy, Gabriella. I love him. I've always loved him. But he never noticed me. And if he did, it was as the 'nerd', or the 'freaky math girl', or whatever you guys called me. And then, Gabriella, you came here, and you brought us closer together. And yet, you also took him away from me. We all became friends but it was so obvious that he was madly in love with you." Taylor was noticeably fighting back tears. "It hurt Gabriella. Every moment you two spent with each other. _Troyella_. It killed me. I couldn't watch it." She looked at Gabriella straight in the eye. "If I couldn't have Troy, no one could." Gabriella stared, along with the rest of her friends, in absolute shock and disbelief.

"How could you? Why at my party? Why not….why not…" Gabriella's emotions conquered her as she broke down. Taylor answered Gabriella's question.

"Well, first of all, your party gave a perfect scenario…lots of suspects, different motives, that type thing." Taylor looked at Gabriella with a sincere look in her eyes. "But the real reason? I know this is hard to believe Gabriella, but I _do_ love you. I thought that I owed it to you to let you be with Troy for the last minute of his life. And I thought I owed it to Troy to have him die in the arms of someone he loved."

…

Taylor was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Gabriella's name was put in the paper and she was given full credit for solving the mystery of who killed Troy Bolton. Gabriella was sorry more than anything for turning in her best friend, but even sorrier for Taylor. She was sorry that Taylor had been so crazy in love, literally, that she felt the need to kill someone. She hoped that Troy knew that Gabriella had done this, had sacrificed everything she did, because she loved him.

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**A/N: **Thank you to everyone who read the story. It was my very first Fanfic, and I am pretty happy with the result. Oh, and sorry about the end, it's pretty cheesy and bad, but I didn't just want to end it with "Troy did in your arms", you know? Anyways, thanks and hope you enjoyed it!


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